Quake 2 RTX Release Date; Remake Will be Partially Free

Nvidia presented Quake II RTX - a new version of id Software's game from 1997, supporting ray tracing. The game will debut in June and require a GPU with hardware-based ray-tracing support. Three single-player levels will be made available for free.

During the conference at Computex 2019 Nvidia presented Quake II RTX - a refreshed version of the classic titleby id Software, which was enriched with support for ray tracing technology. The game was developed in cooperation with Bethesda Softworks (the current owner of id Software) and will be released on June 6. A trailer was also revealed, which you can see below.

“Quake II RTX is an expression of our love and passion for PC gaming,” said Matt Wuebbling, head of GeForce marketing at NVIDIA. “By applying next-generation ray-traced graphics technologies and using the Vulkan API, we are able to share this PC classic with a new generation of gamers who can download and play it for free.”

The production can be downloaded from the Nvidia website or via Steam. Everyone interested will be able to check three single-player levels for free, and owners of the original version will have access to the full title, including the multiplayer mode (deathmatch and co-op).

“It’s rare that a PC game has the impact and longevity of Quake II, and seeing it reimagined with ray tracing 20 years later is something special for me,” said Tim Willits, studio director of id Software and one of the creators of the original Quake franchise. “Equally special is the relationship with NVIDIA, whom we have worked with since the early days of first-person shooters. Seeing how NVIDIA integrated modern features into this classic game is really exciting.”

Quake II RTX was developed using NVIDIA VKRay, a tool that allows you to add ray tracing to any production using the Vulcan API. It is worth noting that the implementation of ray tracing in this title is quite demanding - it includes highly dynamic lighting calculated in real time, with faithfully reproduced indirect lighting, as well as precise rendering of surfaces that are subject to physical processes. For this reason, only owners of cards with hardware RTX acceleration (the absolute minimum is the GeForce RTX 2060) will be able to launch the game.